Natural Law and Everyday Law

Abstract

LIKE MOST TERMS "natural law" has had, and has, a variety of meanings. In most of its meanings it touches scarcely at all the professional concerns of the lawyer but moves, rather, on a plane widely separated from his daily cares and duties. Thus, for the most part, natural law stands aloof from the urgent here-and-now with which lawyer and judge necessarily are preoccupied; it inhabits a world apart. Relevant in this connection is a comment by Canon Leclercq, Professor of Moral and Social Philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain: *.. The term "natural law" is currently fashionable, especially among Catholics who seek a rallying point against relativism. There are, therefore, many people fond of using it, and they bring it up on any pretext, as other men use the term "sociology." 1 Lecture delivered at the Yale Law School on February 29, 1960. 1. See Jacques Leclercq, Suggestions for Clarifying Natural Law, 2 NATURAL LAw Foaum 64, 74 (1957). 67. CARDozo, THE NATURE OF THE JUDICIAL PROCESS 172 (1922). 68. Hand, The Contribution of an Independent Judiciary to Civilization, in THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY 158-59 (2nd ed., 1953). 69. See KARL ADA , THE SPIRIT OF CATHOLICISM 246 (rev. ed., 1943): "Every period of time has its special character, its 'spirit,' i.e., a characteristic way, conditioned by-special circumstances, of seeing, feeling, judging and acting." 70. CARDOZO, THE NATURE OF THE JUDICIAL PROCESS 114 (1922).